The 1864 campaign had ground to a fiery halt in the inferno of the Battle of the Wilderness. For two days, Union and Confederate soldiers fought in an area of dense woods, interspersed with tangled thickets and small farm fields. Fires, kindled in the dry underbrush, added another element of horror to the battle as helpless wounded were burned alive. By the end of the second day, every Union soldier acknowledged the next move: north, once again in defeat. Instead, the tired columns were turned southward, toward Richmond. Through the column rode the new architect of their campaign, General Ulysses S. Grant. Colonel Horace Porter, who rode with Grant, wrote, “Wild cheers echoed through the forest. Men swung their hats…and pressed forward to within touch of their chief, speaking to him with the familiarity of comrades.” The veterans knew that this non-descript general was as determined to finish the war as they were. For Grant, it was a victory. For Lee, it was a new and more dangerous adversary.